Naruto: Records Of One Piece
by SNFan99
Summary: Rewritten. FemNaruto. If she hadn't forgotten her memories then maybe she wouldn't be in this situation. Now here she was, helping her best-friend become Pirate King while at the same time searching for way back to a home that she barely remembered but desperately longed to find. Of course, she didn't expect Luffy and his crew or Ace to make her have doubts of going home.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except the plot.

A/N: This is the rewritten version of Naruto: Records of One Piece and I hope that all of you will enjoy this chapter.

* * *

"Makino-neechan, have you ever wonder where I come from? Or how I even got here?"

The pretty dark-haired bar owner looked up from the dirty plate she was wiping to look at her young ward, a ten-year-old blond-haired girl. She tilted her head as she stared at the young girl, taking in her appearance and mulled over her question.

The blonde herself simply looked at her hands before glancing down at her light orange skirt and then glanced at the older woman with a hopeful look. Her blue eyes gleamed with so much hope that it could blind the whole bar with just how bright it was.

"I've wonder how you got here," Makino admitted, smiling down at the blonde as she continued to wipe the dirty plate. "Especially how could someone as young as you could be drifting in the sea without any support or how you could have gotten so injured."

"Were there any clues on how I got those injuries? Or where I came from, Makino-neechan?" Naru asked—her eyes still dancing with hope that the older woman would know the truth. "I mean there had to be some kind of clue on what could have happen to me! Please tell me Makino-neechan."

The young woman bit her lips before shaking her head. "Sorry Naru-chan but there wasn't any clues on how you got here when I found you. The only thing that might be considered as a clue is the fact that you said something about a Hokage. I didn't understand what it meant so I asked the villagers but none of them understood what the word meant…it might be a name of a village."

"So I come from a different village?"

"Yup, maybe from a different country that's in war or something because the clothes you wore at that time were in a bad state and covered in blood," Makino took in a shaky breath and clutched her apron while Naru stared down at her dangling feet before looking back at the older girl, waiting for her to continue explaining. "When I found you Naru…you were in a very bad state, it's a miracle that you've no scar from the incident or that the doctor healed you without any problems."

Naru sulked at this. "I do have a problem! I can't remember anything Makino-neechan! I can't even remember my age! How do we even know I'm ten, Makino-neechan! I don't even know if I've parents and how do you know my name is Naru? Nothing I do that the doctor says seems to work for me!"

Makino shook her head at this question and said, "Because before you passed out, you told me that your name is Naru. Uzumaki Naru is what you told me exactly before you passed out from exhaustion and blood lost."

Naru blinked her eyes at this, opening her mouth to ask the young woman more about what she said before she passed out but closed it when she saw the gentle smile in the woman's face. She furrowed her eyebrows at her sister's figure expression and relaxed when Makino squeezed her shoulder before wrapping her arms around her. Like she always did whenever she knew that she needed to comfort her.

For four years now, this was how her sister figure comfort her whenever she felt worked up with the lack of knowledge in her part.

"There's nothing for you to be worried about, Naru-chan," Makino said softly, tilting Naru's chin up for the young girl to look her in the eyes, which mirrored the hope in the blonde's eyes. "I know you'll get your memories back, Naru-chan and when it does, all your questions will be answered."

And that was the problem for Naru; she didn't know whether or not she wanted her questions to be answered. She was happy with the way her life was but she was afraid if that she remembered then her whole life would be ruin, like in those storybooks she read.

"Makino-neechan, is it bad if I say that I don't really want to remember them?" Naru whispered, looking down at her small hands. "I don't want to remember if it means my memories are scary! I don't want to remember anything bad like I really don't have any parents. I don't want to remember anything bad, Makino-neechan!"

Makino smiled sadly at her. "It isn't bad for you to say these things Naru-chan but you have no control on whether or not to remember these things. Just remember that you've the villagers and me to take those scary things away. You've me now to chase away those bad memories and your parents might be alive Naru-chan, and I bet you that they're searching for you at this very moment!"

Naru smiled brightly at this and wrapped her arms around the young woman, hugging her tightly at hearing these words. Hearing those words just chased away her bad thoughts because she did have Makino with her. Makino, who took care of her and played with her and Luffy. The same Makino, who told her bedtime stories and taught her how to cook. The Makino, who stayed with her when she was the infirmary or who always cuddled her after a bad dream?

"I love you, Makino-neechan," Naru whispered into the young woman's ear. The blonde could feel Makino's smile against her hair and before the young girl even realized, the young woman was tickling her by the sides. The whole room jumped as the young girl's laughter filled the room, leaving no inch of the place that didn't echo with Naru's laughter.

"You're right Makino-neechan! My parents might be alive and searching for me!" Naru said brightly, smiling at the young woman when Makino had stopped tickling her. "And that means I've to search for them right? Because they don't know I'm far away from our home! This means I've to search the whole world to find my home and see my parents right?"

"Yes, Naru-chan that's right."

Makino giggled when the blonde rushed again to give her a hug that was even tighter then before. Naru took in a deep breath, feeling her heart calm down when she smelled the comforting scent of Makino. The young woman always smelled like soap and trees, which always reminded her of the village and the mountains that surround their home.

"Makino-neechan, when I get back home, I'll send you millions and millions of letters telling you about my home," Naru babbled. "I'll take pictures of it and tell my family about ya! And I'll visit you all the time 'cuz you're my onee-chan and I can't forget you. I'll tell you about the food there and how they make it there…"

Makino smiled at this. "I can't wait Naru-chan."

* * *

Naru took a small sip of her orange juice before giggling as she watched a couple of pirates drink the whole tank of sake Makino had given them. Her giggles soon got louder when she heard their demands for more sake and the other pirates arguments for more meat. She shook her head when she saw that some of the pirates were starting to fight over their belongings. Didn't they write their names on it? Makino always told her to do that so that she and Luffy didn't argue over these things.

Maybe the pirates should do the same thing!

Her giggles soon stopped when she noticed Luffy entering the bar with Shanks in tow and she gestured for Luffy to come sit with her. The younger boy beamed at her and rushed towards her, jumping into the stool next to her while Shanks took a seat beside him, which was closer to where Makino was working.

She stopped smiling when she noticed the bandage under Luffy's cheek. "Hey Luffy, what happen to ya?"

"I stabbed myself with a knife Naru," Luffy said, glancing at her drink and without even thinking tried to seal it from her but only to get a gentle slap by the blonde, who pulled the drink closer to her side.

She frowned as she processed the news that Luffy given her and when she finally realized what the younger boy had done, she slapped him on the head. Luffy yelped out in pain, falling down of the stool. He rubbed his head, frowning at her while the blonde jumped out of her seat and glared at him.

"Why did you hit me, Naru?"

"Because you stab yourself with a knife, Luffy!" Naru cried out. "That was stupid and unsafe! Makino-neechan had told you time in and time out that knives aren't something you can play with! What the hell were you thinking?" she slapped his hand away from his drink and glared at him. "And don't try to steal my orange juice or else, I'll do something even worse then slapping your hand away!"

"Like what?"

"Like punching you in the face until you won't be able to see," Luffy gulped and Naru continued. "Or I could do the same thing I did to the stupid boy across the street! Y'know he still haven't recovered from my kick!"

"Your kick is worse then any knife," Luffy said, looking pale at what she just said. "I promise not to take your orange juice again Naru! Please don't kick me!"

Naru nodded her head at him before smiling and asking Makino for another orange juice for Luffy. The young woman smiled and winked at her, before heading off to the kitchen to get the juice. Naru shook her head and looked at Luffy closely before finally stating. "Now tell me Luffy, why the hell did you stab yourself with a knife? And how painful was it?"

"I was trying to prove to Shanks that I'm good enough to be a pirate," Luffy sulked and Naru furrowed her eyebrows at this. "He says I'm not ready to be a pirate so I just thought I would stab myself to prove it to him."

The blonde tilted her head at this. How was stabbing himself going to prove to Shanks that Luffy was ready to be a pirate? Did all pirates do those things to prove themselves? If they did then it was strange because there were other ways to prove themselves right? Because stabbing yourself is stupid as Makino would tell her.

"And how painful was it, Luffy?" Naru asked, looking wide-eyed at him.

Luffy smiled at her. "It didn't hurt one bit!"

The blonde snorted at his words. She would believe him if it weren't for the fact that the younger boy had tears streaming down his eyes. Honestly, why couldn't Luffy admit to her that it was painful? Because she could see it had to hurt for him to cry like that and her friend never cried about anything.

"Liar! Don't do anything so stupid ever again!" Shanks yelled at him and Naru nodded her head in agreement with the older man. She looked around the room and noticed that Makino had too many drinks in her hand. With a nod, Naru headed towards her sister-figure, who immediately handed her Luffy and Shank's drinks. She wrinkled her nose when she took a whiff of Shank's drink.

Why the hell do people drink those things?

Oh well, she would know when she was older. With that thought, Naru quickly headed back to her seat, handing Shanks his sake and Luffy, his orange juice before jumping back onto her stool. The two of them smiled at her and thanked her for giving them their drinks before continuing on their conversation.

"I'm not afraid of pain at all!" Luffy declared, waving his hands at them. "Next time bring me out to sea! I want to be a pirate too!"

"Well that's not fair! If Shanks takes you then he should take me with him too!" Naru said, crossing her arms at Luffy before shooting a pouting look at the older man. "Please take me with ya, Shanks! I've never been on a boat in sea! Pretty please Shanks!"

"No can do, Luffy, Naru! The both of you won't be able to handle being pirates!" Shanks informed them. "The two of you can't swim and not being able to swim is a pirate's greatest weakness!"

"Then can't you teach us?" Naru cried, looking wide-eyed at him.

"No! I'm too busy to teach you guys!" Shanks informed her.

"We don't need Shanks to teach us, Naru!" Luffy said brightly and this got a raised eyebrow from Naru. "As long as we stay onboard the ship, we'll be fine! Besides, we're good in fighting!"

"Fighting will do us no good if the ship explodes," Naru pointed out. "What will we do if the ship explode Luffy?"

"We'll call for help!"

Naru laughed out loud at this, causing the younger boy to pout at her. She should have expected this answer from the younger boy because that was the type of thing he would say. Of course, he would cry out for help because that was the most common thing to think of when they do get stuck.

"…I've rigorously trained before! My punch is strong as a pistol on fire!" Luffy said, snapping her from her train of thought. She raised her eyebrows at the sight of her friend's pumping his fist at her.

"If Luffy's punch is strong as a pistol on fire then mine is as strong as a bazooka!" Naru declared, slinging her arm around Luffy's shoulder, who beamed at her words.

"Pistol? Bazooka? Wow…really?" Shanks asked, looking at the pair of them in boredom as they drank their juices.

"What kind of tone is that?" Luffy cried.

"He doesn't believe us!" Naru said angrily, handing the younger boy a glass of apple juice. "He thinks we're lying about our words! You, I can understand since you make things up but I don't make things up! My punches are just as strong as a bazooka, you can ask any boy in this village Shanks! And they'll tell you that my punches are painful!"

"Sure it is."

"Yes, it is! You can even ask Makino about my punches! She's the one who has to make me apologize to the boys that cry about my punches!" Naru snapped, looking at Makino. The young woman nodded her head in agreement as she handed Shanks his second jug of sake.

"All the boys in the village complain about Naru and her punches! You've to see the amount of boys that go to the infirmary because Naru gets into a fistfight with them," Makino said fondly. Naru smiled in triumph and opened her mouth to tell Shanks that he should take her with him but before she could say anything, Makino hastily continued. "But Shanks is right, Naru! You and Luffy aren't ready to become pirates!"

"Why not!" Naru asked, crossing her arms at her sister's figure as she pressed her lips into a pout. "Why can't we become a pirate right now, Makino-neechan?"

"The two of you aren't old enough to become pirates," Makino said firmly. "The two of you are too young to become pirates, just wait until you're seventeen before heading off to sea."

"But…"

"No buts, Naru."

The blonde sulked but agreed to her older sister figure's request, knowing that she wouldn't be able to win an argument on this matter. When it came to these things, Makino would always win because Naru couldn't find the right words to argue with her older sister figure. The young woman always seemed to know the right words to convince her that the plan was a bad idea.

She could never ever win a fight against Makino even though she wanted so badly to win for this fight. This might be the only chance she had of being out in sea and searching for the home, she didn't remember.

A home where she might have people searching for her, who believed that she was dead.

"…What a dirty trick!" Luffy yelled, snapping her from her thoughts. The blonde frowned and watched as the younger boy stomped off from them, not explaining to her what the hell happened for him to say that. She knew it had to be something Shanks did because Makino would never do dirty tricks and the other pirates wouldn't dare do those things to Luffy.

Shaking her head, Naru turned the stool around to face Shanks, who was gulping down the jug of sake that Makino had given him. The older man stopped drinking and stared at her, raising his eyebrow as he waited for her to start speaking. She smiled widely at him.

"Hey Shanks, you've been everywhere right? I mean being a pirate means that you travel all over the world right?"

"I've been a lot of places," Shanks agreed, narrowing his eyes at the blonde as he tried to figure out what the girl was trying to get at.

"Did any of these places have a village called Hokage?" Naru asked eagerly, smiling hopefully at the older man, who blinked his eyes at her. For a brief moment, she saw the nervous look on Shanks face but as soon as it was there, it was gone making the young blonde believe that she had just imagined it. She smiled wider when she saw Shanks pursed his lips at her, looking uncertain on whether or not to tell her.

"I've been a place that gave its leader the title Hokage," Shanks said and for a brief moment, there was sadness in Shank's eyes but disappeared before anyone else could notice it. "Those places, no those countries are one of the most bloodthirsty places I've seen. It's so bad that I would never go there again even if my life depended on it."

"Oh," Naru muttered, looking down at her hands. "I see."

"But I can't deny the countries there are beautiful and the sake isn't too bad, not as good as my hometown but it's still pretty good," Shanks said, ruffling her hair.

Naru smiled at this and jumped down from the stool before heading towards Makino. The young woman stared at her in concern, looking torn between questioning her or waiting for her to tell her what happened. She smiled widely at the young woman and jumped on the seat, spinning on the stool before staring at the young woman.

"So? What did Shanks say?" Makino asked, smiling at her.

"My home isn't called Hokage but there's a leader in the village that gives its leader the title Hokage," Naru answered cheerfully and the young woman frowned at her, squeezing her shoulder to reassure her that she shouldn't give up. "He said that he wouldn't even go back to those countries even if his life depended on it. My home is so dangerous that Shanks doesn't even like the idea of it! If it's that dangerous then what hope do I have of surviving there?"

"You're one of the strongest girls I know, Naru-chan," Makino said, staring hard at her. Naru looked up at Makino and widened her eyes at this. "You're the only girl I know who can make the men in our village scream like a little girl and the only girl that will dare to lay a finger on Luffy!"

"But what if I can't survive in those lands?"

"You lived there before you came here, didn't you?" Makino asked, smiling at her. Naru reluctantly nodded her head and the young woman smiled even wider before continuing. "Then what's there to say you can't survive there? You lived and survived there for six years before coming to our village! You can survive another couple of years there! I know you can!"

The blonde smiled at those words. Knowing that Makino believed in her made her feel better and she felt like an idiot for doubting her abilities of surviving there because if Makino believed in her, then that meant she could do it. If she survived the first six years of her life there then she could definitely live there for the rest of her life.

"Wait a second, Naru, you come from those lands?" Shanks called out, drawing everyone's attention towards him. He stared at her closely and for a brief moment, Shanks' face turned pale as a ghost as if he just seen actual ghost. Naru tilted her head at her sister figure, opening her mouth to ask if she should get the doc but decided against it.

Her sister would have done it immediately if he was sick.

Naru frowned at Shanks and nodded her head. "I don't know but I think so! Makino-san found me nearly dead in the beach and apparently the last world I said to her before I passed out was my name and the word Hokage."

"Hokage, huh?" Shanks asked, staring at her thoughtfully. He flickered his eyes at her sun-kissed blond hair before looking at the necklace that clung to her neck. For a brief moment, there was sadness in Shanks eyes but the sadness disappeared as quickly as soon as it was there. He smiled at her and laughed when he saw her glare. He raised his hands at her. "I'm not going to steal that necklace off you, Naru! It just reminded me of something, that's all."

"What did it remind you of?"

Shanks smiled. "Well, that symbol in your necklace reminded me of my family's clan before it got destroyed in the war. Luckily, I was out in sea and my sister was in a different village at the time. Y'know the people from my clan are spread out all over of the place."

"Really?" Naru asked, looking wide-eyed at him. "My necklace belongs to your family's clan? Is it really all right for me to wear this? Oh, does this make us related then Shanks?"

"Of course, it's alright for you to wear it, your parents gave it to ya didn't they?" Naru nodded her head and Shanks ruffled her hair. "And yes, it does make us related. You know you can call me Shanks-ojisan."

Naru wrinkled her nose. "You aren't much older then Makino-neechan! I'm not calling you Shanks-ojisan! I'm going to call you Shanks-niichan!"

The redhead laughed at her question and nodded his head, giving her a smile before gulping down his food. She stared down at her necklace. This necklace told her that she was at least part of a clan, for the longest time she wanted to know where she came from and now she had some answers. She was a part of the same clan as Shanks and was related to that pirate, no matter how distantly it was.

"So Shanks-niichan, what's our clan like?"

"We were one big happy family," Shanks immediately answered. "And all our family members are redheads. That was the only way you know if you were an Uzumaki, if you have the signature red-hair."

"But I don't have red-hair!" Naru pointed out. "How do you know that I'm an Uzumaki? I mean my last name might be Uzumaki but I don't have the signature red hair!"

"When I was in the land with the Hokage, I met my sister and her husband," Shanks said, giving her a sad smile. "And her husband wasn't an Uzumaki so I doubt any kids they were going to have would have ended up with my sister's red-hair. At least one of them would have gotten my brother-in-law hair colour."

"But that doesn't explain about me?"

"Because you got the necklace don't ya? And only an Uzumaki can wear that necklace," Shanks declared to her, pinching her by the cheek. "If you can wear that necklace then there's no doubt you're an Uzumaki."

If that was why Shanks believed she was an Uzumaki in blood then she would believe him, after all family members don't lie to each other right. And Shanks was family, blood related or not.

"Why can't I be related to someone cool?" Luffy complained, drawing their attention back to him. He had a huge pout on his face as he stared at the two of them, making the blonde laugh at his expression. The younger boy was just so cute that it wasn't even funny.

"You're related to Shanks, Luffy!" Naru said to Luffy, smiling at him. "You're my little brother in everything but blood so that makes Shanks your Uncle too!"

"Really?"

"Would I ever lie to you about something like that?"

"No."

"Then there's your answer."

Luffy smiled widely at this and turned around to Shanks, who looked at the two of them in amusement. "Hey Shanks, how long are you going to be here?"

Naru frowned at this. She had forgotten that the older male was still a pirate and therefore couldn't stay here long if not because, the mayor was complaining then it was the fact that the marines would soon find out they were here. She looked wide-eyed at Shanks and watched in fascination as the man twirled his spoon around, mulling over their question.

"Well, it's almost been a year since we used this town as our base," Shanks said thoughtfully. "I plan on setting sail a couple more times then we'll leave this town and head north."

"A couple of more times…" Luffy muttered, looking for once in his life very thoughtful at hearing this news. Naru glanced at Makino, who simply sighed at this knowledge and didn't simply looked all that surprise at what Shanks had just said. Then again, Shanks didn't hide anything from Makino. The two of them were very close even though Makino denied it.

It was like the older woman was afraid of telling her the nature of their relationship because she was afraid that she would spill the beans or something like that.

"I'll learn how to swim by then!" Luffy declared.

Naru snorted. "If you don't get distracted by your own curiosity."

"I don't get distracted!"

"Luffy, I nearly lost you in the middle of town because you got distracted by a pretty butterfly," Naru retorted. "Yes, you get distracted and I've no doubt that you would get distracted from learning how to swim."

"I won't! If it's going to help me become a pirate then I won't get distracted!"

"If you say so but if I ever find out that you've skipped swimming lessons because of a butterfly or another animal then you can bet your skinny ass that I'll whip you into shape, got it?" Luffy paled and nodded his head, causing the blonde to smile and pinched the younger boy's cheek.

"And that's why Luffy can't be a real pirate just yet…he's terrified of a little girl," Shanks said, laughing at the pair of them.

"Like you aren't terrified of Makino-san!" Naru retorted and that immediately got the older man to stop laughing and Luffy to start laughing. "Honestly if you're going to make a comment, at least back up the statement you're making. You along with every other men in this village, except Grap, seemed to be terrified whenever Makino glares at you!"

"Because she doesn't glare and when she does, it means trouble!"

"Excuses, excuses!" Naru said, waving her hand at his words. "You just don't want to admit that you're terrified of her."

Naru would have teased the older man more if the door hadn't been slammed opened by a man, who walked up to Makino with his hands in pockets. There was no doubt in Naru's mind that the man who walked in was a dangerous man, any idiot could see that. After all, the man carried those swords as if it was no problem and looked like the kind of guy, who didn't have any problems hurting innocent people.

Without even thinking, Naru grabbed Luffy, who looked at her in confusion and opened his mouth to say something but closed it when he saw the frightened look on the blond's face. The two of them quickly went behind the counter, where hopefully the men wouldn't take any notice of them.

"We're bandits," The man announced, rubbing his chin as he looked around the bar. His eyes lingered at Makino before finishing his analysis of the crowded room. "We're not here to cause any problems. We just wanna buy ten barrels of sake."

Makino sweated and tightened her grip on the clipboard in her hand before scanning the room for any sign of Naru and Luffy. Her body slightly relaxed when she caught sight of Naru and Luffy inside the bar, where they would hopefully be shielded away from the violence.

"Well?"

"I'm so sorry but we're out of sake," Makino finally answered as she tried to keep her voice in an even tone.

"Oh?" The man said, sneering at Makino. He surveyed the room around, his eyes lingered at Naru and Luffy, both of whom were glaring at him. He scowled at them before continuing on his search in the room. He stopped looking around when he noticed that Shanks had a jug of sake in his hand.

Naru's breath hitched when she saw that the man was now inching closer to Shanks, who looked obvious on what was happening. She tightened her grip on Luffy when she caught sight of the barely disguised anger in the man's eyes. Something was going to happen and Naru wasn't certain whether it was going to be a good thing or not.

"Is it water?" The bandit asked and Naru prayed that Shanks would make the right decision and tell the man that it was water. She didn't want the older man to get hurt by this guy. Especially a guy that looked like he didn't mind killing anyone that stood in his way.

"I'm sorry. It looks like we've finished all the sake here. Sorry about that," Shanks said, smiling at the man before offering the sake bottle and Naru's eyes widened at this. What the hell was Shanks thinking? That was only going to get the man more angry! And that meant the whole bar was in trouble because that man looked like trouble. "Here, if you don't mind take the last bottle."

Really, what the hell was Shanks thinking?

Naru tightened her hold on Luffy, gritting her teeth as the man smashed the bottle of sake against Shank's hat. If she hadn't pulled Luffy out of the way earlier then there would have been no doubt in her mind that the younger boy would have gotten serious injured. But she was worried about Shanks. Sure he was a great pirate and everything but he could have been injured because of this.

She gritted her teeth at this thought.

"Just who do you think I am? Don't take me so lightly!" The man snarled, glaring at the drenching wet Shanks. "One bottle isn't enough!"

"Oh no," Shanks muttered, staring down at the wet floor. "Now the floor is all wet."

Naru smiled at his words before glaring at the man that towered over her. She suddenly had this urge to rip him into sheds and feed him to the wolves, who would no doubt loved to eat a disgusting man like that. She wanted to murder the man for daring to hurt Shanks, for threatening Makino but that would meant letting go of Luffy and the idiot would do worst things then she could imagine.

That was saying something since she had a pretty cruel mind if she dared say so.

"My head is worth eight million beli!" Naru unconsciously loosened her hold on Luffy as she grimaced at this piece of news. She didn't need to be a genius to know that was a lot of money. "I'm one of the prime fugitives here! And I've killed fifty-six people before! You cocky bastard!"

"56 people isn't that much," Naru muttered and this caused Luffy to look at her in curiosity. She frowned and explained to the younger boy in a softer voice, "I bet Shanks killed more people then him."

"Now that you know who I am, don't mess with us again!" The bandit snapped. "After all mountain bandits and sea pirates don't mingle very well!"

Shanks didn't seem to listen to him in Naru's opinion and she was basing this opinion on the fact that he was now cleaning up the stupid bandit's mess. She couldn't understand why he wouldn't force the bandit to do it. It was his mess! And he should be the one cleaning it up. She let go of Luffy and listened as Shanks apologized to Makino and asked for a mop.

Naru's eyes narrowed when she saw that the man was bringing out a sword. Before anyone even realized it, Naru had slammed her fist against the man's abdomen and kicked him in the head. She ignored the surprised, frightened looks from the other bandits, fixing her eyes at the man that was clutching his stomach in pain.

"You're one hell of a coward," Naru snarled, putting her hands onto her pockets as she stomped her foot harder against the man's abdomen. She took the man by the collar and slammed him against the counter, causing him to groan in pain and to stare at her wide-eyed. "Who the hell are you to attack a man that is cleaning the mess you make! If anything you should be grateful because if it had been me, I would have forced you to clean it up!"

"Like you could!"

"I bloody hell can! You just got owned by a ten-year-old girl," Naru sneered. "I think that bounty you have must be some kind of joke if you could be bested by a little girl."

"Why you little…" The man said, glaring at her.

"Brat?" Naru supplied. She threw the man against the table and picked up his fallen sword, before pointing it at his neck. "Now look here, if I see you come here again and threatened my friend ever again then the next time we meet, I'll send you flying to the next town! Now leave!"

With just two words from her, the men scrambled away from the bar and Naru slumped down in her seat, looking at her hands in horror. She had never done something like that. She always had Makino or someone else handling it but when those men came in, and Shanks didn't do anything, well she let her temper got the best of her.

She had been lucky that the man hadn't expected her to attack him.

"THAT WAS DISGRACEFUL!" Luffy yelled to Shanks as soon as the bandits were gone. "WHY DIDN'T YOU FIGHT HIM? WHY DID YOU LET NARU FIGHT HIM! AND WHO LAUGHS AFTER GETTING PICKED ON? YOU'RE NOT A MAN OR A PIRATE!"

"Luffy, calm down!" Naru snapped, slapping the boy on the head.

"But Naru!"

"Don't Naru me, he had his reasons!" The blonde took a deep breath and continued. "If he hadn't laughed and picked a fight like I had then you can bet your ass that he had fallen for his trap."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that stupid bandit was doing it on purpose," Naru said, gritting her teeth. "He did that because he wanted Shanks to beat him up and to cause an even bigger fight. If Shanks fought him then this whole building would be destroyed and we would be hurt."

"But you fought him!"

"Yeah because he wasn't expecting it and because I let my temper got the better of me," Naru admitted. "No one hurts my friends and gets away with it. He's going to pay for trying to hurt Shanks-niichan but Luffy, we might be in trouble because of me. So don't ever do what I just did."

"But…"

"You shouldn't get furious about it," Naru nodded her head firmly. "It takes a bigger man to ignore a fight, didn't your Gramps tell ya that?"

"Well…"

"You didn't pay attention to him, did you?" Naru frowned. "Then again, I don't know if that will be something your grandfather would say seeing as we don't see him that much and me and him have different ideas on what justice is. Anyways, you should just understand that Shanks did it to save your skinny ass and to protect everyone in the bar!"

Luffy frowned and crossed his arms causing the blonde to twitched her eyebrows at him but made of no attempt to stop the boy from walking away. She glanced at Shanks, who had a smile on his face as he clutched Luffy's hand. Everyone in the room gasped as Luffy continued walking, with his arm stretched from where Shanks was to the door.

"W-What the hell is happening, Makino-san?" Naru asked, rubbing her eyes at the sight in front of her.

"I-I don't know," Makino answered.

"It's gone!" One of Shanks' men yelled, opening the treasure chest to reveal that there was no treasure in it. "The Gomu Gomu no Mi we took from the enemy isn't here!"

All the pirates turned pale at this and stuttered, "W-What!"

"The fruit you stole isn't there anymore!" Naru stated and all the pirates glared at her for reminding them. She smiled apologetically at them and watched as the crewmember practically begged Luffy to tell them whether he ate the fruit that they stole or not.

She snorted at this.

Anyone who knew Luffy would say without a doubt that Luffy would have eaten it without a second thought.

"It tasted pretty bad," was Luffy answer.

"Luffy, what are we going to do with you? Maybe we should start training you not to think with your stomach and to think with your head," Naru mused, pulling a seat beside him while Shanks walked back and forth. He stopped walking, took a deep breath before taking a seat beside the blonde.

"That fruit is one of the fruit of the devil and one of the rarest treasures in the sea!" Shanks finally shouted, tugging the boy's cheeks. "Whoever eats the Gomu Gomu no Mi will turn into rubber and will never be able to swim."

"You're kidding, right?" Luffy asked, his jaw dropping at this.

"Luffy, he wouldn't be panicking about this if he was," Naru answered. "And think about it, that was treasure, so why would he joke about this if you ate his treasure that could have made him rich!"

"You idiot!" Shanks muttered as Luffy gulped.

The funniest thing for Naru was the fact that it was just another typical day in their village, except for the exception of Luffy eating the fruit. Now that had been something no one had expected to happen.

Naru grinned at this. She had a feeling that more and more strange things were going to happen if she stick around Luffy and if there was one thing she couldn't do, it was leaving that boy side. They made a deal. She helped him with his dream; he would help her with hers.

It just made it more fun that trouble was looking for him.

* * *

**A/N: Please review**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except the plot.

A/N: I would like to thank everyone who had added this story and reviewed the first chapter.

* * *

"Hey Makino-neechan, Grap is dragging Luffy out of the house again! Do you know why Luffy is taking to those scary mountains?" Naru asked, peeking out of the bar window before staring at the bar owner before putting her head on the table, watching Makino as she cleaned the plates. The blonde winced at the cries that Luffy was producing, as he demanded his grandfather to let go of his ear.

It was weird that Garp came back just as soon as Shanks and his crew left. Now that had been a sad day when Shanks and his crew left the whole village and Naru blamed herself for it happening. Her relative left just after saving Luffy from those bandits, who decided to target her friend because he insulted them and because she was close to them. This was why it was her fault. It was her fault that Luffy got hurt and Shanks' leaving. If she hadn't hit that bandit then maybe he wouldn't have been targeted and Shanks wouldn't have leave earlier then expected. Then again Luffy also yelled at them for insulting Shanks. She had nearly punched them for that but Makino had held her back before she could do anything.

Makino really didn't let her have any fun.

"Garp is taking Luffy to his new home Naru-chan," Makino answered, smiling sadly at the blonde. Naru froze at these words, blinking her eyes at her sister figure before shaking her head in denial. Luffy wasn't going to a new home! He was her best friend, her little brother! No one was going to take her brother away! She shook her head again. Garp wasn't taking Luffy away from her; he wasn't because no one else could take better care of Luffy then the villagers.

Her train of thought was broken when Makino squeezed her shoulder and the blonde looked up to see Makino smiling at her with understanding. Naru crossed her arms at her and looked out of the window, watching the small figures of Garp and Luffy becoming smaller and smaller as they got closer to the mountains. She shook her head, jumped down from the stool and started to rush towards the door only for Makino to grab her by the collar.

"You're not chasing after them, Uzumaki Naru!" Makino said, staring hard at the younger girl's eyes. This only caused the blonde to pout at her. "Nice try Naru-chan but I'm not letting you go after them. Those mountains are dangerous Naru and you have no idea what's in there."

"I don't care if it's dangerous Makino-neechan! Luffy is my best-friend and I'm not letting him leave without me!" Naru said angrily. "I can face anything that is in there! I'm just as strong as Luffy! Hell, I'm even stronger then him."

"Naru-chan, language! And I know you're strong Naru but it doesn't change the fact that the mountain is dangerous. I'm not letting you go there by yourself."

Naru smiled apologetically at the young woman before looking out at the window, where the mountains loomed over the village. She never thought that her sister figure was the type of person that would listen to the rumours of the villagers. They say that the mountains were cursed with dangerous animals that could kill people in just one bite. Some say there was a wild boy that lurked in the forest, who could murder people with just one look.

The last thing had to be a lie because how could anyone survive in that forest by themselves? And they never told her or the other kids about what the wild boy looked like! Makino always told her never to believe the villagers when they gossiped. Yet Makino believed them about it being dangerous. If Luffy could go there then she could too! She was stronger then Luffy.

"Makino-neechan, have you ever been in the forest?"

Makino blinked her eyes at this question and answered. "I've been there once Naru-chan and it's not a very safe place to be in. There are animals there that have claws that can kill you if you touch it. There are plants that can kill you if you eat it. You don't know how to spot those plants Naru and I'm afraid that you'll hurt yourself getting there."

"Then you can come with me, Makino-neechan!"

The dark-haired woman smiled softly at her before shaking her head and gave her a look that said that this was the last time they would have a discussion about this. She pouted but didn't protest, knowing if she annoyed her sister figure then she would eventually crack. Naru didn't want to be in her bad side, especially considering the fact that now Makino would be the only one she could talk to.

Naru bit her lips and stared at her sister figure, noticing the sad smile in her sister's face as she stared at the picture of Shanks that hung on the wall. It had been weeks since Shanks left and her older sister figure hadn't stopped staring at the picture with sadness in her eyes. She didn't understand their relationship but it was a nice relationship. She smiled brightly as she remembered the times where Shanks used to drop in the morning, crying out that he came bearing them gifts.

Now, she doubted that she would ever have that again.

"Makino-neechan…"

Makino looked up at her, raising her eyebrows as she waited with a smile for her to continue. Naru took a deep breath. "Makino-neechan, do you love Shank-niichan?"

The older woman flushed red at this question, opening her mouth to say something before sighing and nodding her head. "I do Naru-chan, I like Shanks a lot and it might be love…"

"How do you know if you're in love?" Naru asked, staring wide-eyed at her sister figure. "Did you fall in love with Shanks-niichan when you first met him? Was it anything like the fairy tale stories you tell me?"

The older woman looked down at her, giving her a small smile as she kneeled down at her. "You will just know when you're in love, Naru-chan. I can't describe it to you because it's different for everyone. And no, I didn't fall in love with Shanks the first time I see him. No one falls in love at first sight. The fairy tale stories I tell you, there aren't anything like life."

Naru blinked her eyes at her sister figure. "How?"

"Because sometimes the princess can't marry her prince," Makino whispered, staring out at the mountains. "And sometimes there're just too many obstacles in their love. One day, you'll meet a man that you love with all your heart and when you think the two of you can be together, something ruins it."

"What ruined your relationship with Shanks-niichan? Is it because Shanks-niichan have to leave because of what happened to Luffy?" Naru asked, looking wide-eyed at her.

Makino shook her head. "No, Naru-chan. Shanks kept secrets from me and I can't handle secrets. I understand why he kept it from me but there were times that I just wished he'll tell me especially when it came to your birthday."

"My birthday?"

"You and Luffy wouldn't notice it but Shanks used to become very moody on this day," Makino informed her. "I think the only time he ever smiled on that day is when you came to him and demanded for your presents. You can just see how his whole face used to light up at the sight of you…it's like you were his whole world and I loved that about him because I've never seen a man treat a kid as well as he did. But the way he always look out at the window, used to make me wonder what he think and when he cried out his sister's name, I wonder what happened between them."

"Didn't you ask him about it?"

"I did and he'll change the topic, making me forget the question I asked," Makino laughed. "It used to drive me nuts because I thought the least he could tell me is this. In fact, the day Luffy ate his fruit was the first time he ever mentioned his family. I'm just happy to know that you and him are related."

"Why?"

"Because it means Shanks is alright with me taking care of you," Makino answered, ruffling her hair. "I was always worried that I'm not good enough to take care of you but, for Shanks to say you're his relative and him not begging me to give you to him tells me that he trusts me and thinks that I'm doing an alright job."

"You always do a good job!" Naru cried, looking wide-eyed at her. "If Makino-neechan didn't find me then I wouldn't be here. You're the best big sister in the whole wide world and you don't need anyone to tell you this."

Makino giggled at this and ruffled her hair.

"Nice compliment Naru but I'm not letting you go see Luffy."

She pouted at this but didn't say anything, instead rushing to give the older woman a hug as she pondered over what she was told. If Shanks was her family then why didn't he take her with him? And why didn't he tell her more about the village she was born in? She frowned. Why didn't he tell her anything about it afterwards? Maybe, it was because she didn't ask him about it. Maybe that was why he didn't tell her more about her home.

She shook her head at this and stared at the loving eyes of her adopted sister before deciding that her home was with Makino and Luffy, those two were her family.

"Makino-neechan, I'm going to visit Luffy one day at his new home," Naru whispered, hugging her sister figure tightly. "It feels weird just knowing that he's out there and I can't talk to him because of how far away he is."

Makino looked misty-eyed at her words before nodding her head in agreement. "You'll just have to get used to it, Naru-chan. Luffy isn't going to stay here anymore and it'll be a long time before you can see him again."

Naru frowned and furrowed her eyebrows at her sister figure. "Why?"

"It will be a while before Garp will let me go see Luffy," Makino answered. "And when that day comes, you can come with me to see Luffy but until then, I don't want you to go out into those mountains, okay?"

Naru kept a smile on her face and nodded at her older sister figure. She knew her older sister figure didn't want her to go around and chase after Luffy but there was no way in hell, she wasn't going to see him now. She wanted at least to say her goodbyes to him and make sure that his new caretakers were going to take real good care of her little brother figure.

If she knew Luffy was in good hands then she could follow her older sister's words but if Naru saw her little brother was in trouble then she would have no choice but to visit him more often.

Besides, her older sister figure couldn't keep her away from Luffy.

* * *

There were so many horrible rumours about the mountain surrounding Foosha Village. Naru had heard so many stories about man-eating bandits who eat children for breakfast and murdered countless people everyday. Some of the villager says those who could last a day in those mountains were strong and those who never came back had been either murdered by the ravenous animals or from the poisonous plants. Naru didn't know if those rumours were true but she could safely say the mountain was very scary.

She tried her best not to cower at the sight of the ravenous animals, whose eyes radiated with bloodlust, as they waited for her to make one wrong move. She gulped whenever the animals bared their teeth at her, showing the sharpness of their teeth. Naru knew from just the sharpness of their teeth that it would be so easy for them to murder her. Just one bite from them and she was dead.

The wind hissed as it rubbed against her bare arms, making Naru grit her teeth from the sheer coldness of the wind. She took in a deep breath and jumped over the tangled roots of the tree, looking up at the clear blue sky while she did so. She was going to have the best day of her life, Naru decided as she continued to stare out at the vast blue sky. Just a few more steps to find out where Luffy was and when she find him, the two of them could talk about the future.

Well if she didn't chicken out, Naru thought to herself while she eyed the towering trees shadowing her. With the starving animals eyeing her and the looming trees, Naru couldn't blame the villagers for thinking only the strong could survive in a forest like this. This forest was just too creepy to her liking if you asked Naru.

Naru shook her head at her train of thought. She shouldn't think like this. If Luffy could survive in this forest by himself then she could survive too. After all, she was the strongest kid in the village—no one could compete with her in strength. How many kids did you know could send a man flying out of the village? No one that was what! Only, she could do this. If she could send a man flying out of the village then she could make it out of here alive.

She nodded her head and took another step forward. No forest should make herself doubt about her capabilities of her strength, Naru thought, continuing on her path through the forest.

Naru froze mid-step at the sight in front of her. It was a sight Naru thought she didn't ever want to see again. A sight Naru despised with all of her heart, which was saying something because the blonde didn't hate anything. Oh yes, Naru hated this sight with a burning passion.

The sight of seeing Luffy being tied up.

She could feel her heart beating wildly against her chest while she tried to control her burning rage. How could this happen? How could she let Luffy get hurt? It barely been a week since he left the village and already, her little brother figure is already in trouble. They should have fought harder to keep Luffy! Makino shouldn't have stopped her from chasing after her friend!

She shook her head and rushed towards the younger boy, forgetting her fear of the ravenous animals lurking over her. No way was she going to stand there and let Luffy get hurt! Her fear be damned! There was no chance in hell she was going to let those starving animals eat her brother figure. She wasn't going to be a good sister if she allowed him to get hurt. If Luffy got hurt or murdered by those animals then she wouldn't forgive herself for allowing him to get hurt.

The blonde stopped in her tracks when she heard the voices of three men echoing through the woods. The hairs in the back of her neck stood up while the voices kept getting louder and louder as each second pass. In the back of her mind, Naru knew she should run away and pretend to having never seen it but a huge part of her had a desire to know what was happening. She knew she should leave or the very least get Luffy out of the ropes because it was the right thing to do.

However, her desire to know what was happening was greater then her desire to run away. Besides, she needed to save Luffy and she wasn't going to save her little brother if she ran away from the scene.

So with that thought in mind, Naru jumped up onto the tree branch and sat down, looking down in the scene with curiosity. She took in a shaky breath when she saw a very large man with long whitish blue hair carrying a sword walked out of the other side of the path. The sword looked very sharp and Naru didn't need to be a genius to know that it would be so easy for the blue-hair man to kill her. There were two men behind him but they didn't look as strong as the other guy but Naru still felt weary of them.

"Those children Ace and Sabo you're telling me about are famous around here," the man said, walking through the roots. He turned to look at one of the injured man, who rubbed his injured head. "You're sure it's Ace that took your money, right?"

Who the hell name their kid Ace? Naru asked herself while she stared down at the three men. Ace was a awesome name to give to a kid but it was also a weird name. No one in their whole village was named Ace nor did anyone had relatives called that and Naru had heard of so many silly names in the village. Luffy's name being one of them, after all who named their kid Luffy?

Of course, Naru never said that to Luffy because the younger boy would pout at her.

"Yes," the crewmember admitted reluctantly. "I'm ashamed, but he got me by surprise."

The big man grunted at his words. "What a stupid child. To take money from our crew! If captain Bluejam hears about this, he'll kill us both!"

Naru blinked her eyes before looking wide-eyed at the men below. A kid stole from them? How could he do that? Didn't he know stealing was bad? Especially from a pirate. The blonde didn't know she should admire the guy for having the guts to do this or yell at the guy for getting these men angry. Just by the look of them, the blue-eyed girl could tell those men wouldn't rest until someone get hurt.

And it was thanks to the boy called Ace, Naru thought bitterly, staring at Luffy. It was thanks to the boy her friend could get potentially hurt if Naru didn't save him on time. She knew she should go and save him now but something was telling her to stay and listen to them talk.

Although Naru knew she had to save Luffy soon because it would be a matter of time before, Luffy would get himself killed by saying the wrong thing.

"LET GO OF ME! DAMN YOU!" Luffy yelled, snapping her out of her thoughts. Naru clenched her hands as the enormous man tightened his grip on the younger boy's ribs. The blonde gritted her teeth but stayed where she was, debating about whether she should continue to wait or take her time in saving him. "Help me Ace!"

Luffy tried to wiggle his way out of the man's grip. Naru felt her heart shattered while she watched Luffy tried his best to get the man to let go of him. Taking a deep breath, the blonde jumped down from the tree branch, landing gracefully on her feet. She brushed the dirt and leaves off her dress, knowing Makino would figure out where she was by the state of her dress.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the man asked Luffy a question about knowing Ace. She stared at Luffy, hoping and praying the younger boy didn't really know the boy but the way he called out for Ace told her he knew him. Knew him to the point he believed he would save him and Naru hated that. She hated how it felt like Luffy replaced her with Ace.

It was like her protecting him from the bullies was for nothing.

"Do you know him, brat?" The ugly man questioned.

"He's my friend!" Naru found herself frowning at this thought as she curled her hands into tighter fist. She didn't like the idea of Luffy having a friend that she didn't know, one that she didn't approve of. "But he did try to kill me just now…"

Naru blinked her eyes. Why would he try to kill Luffy? Sweet Luffy who say the stupidest things but had good intention? Luffy who always tried to make her happy because he thought she wasn't nice when she was sad. How could he want to kill him? And why did Luffy consider a guy like that a friend? Didn't Makino told him about how he shouldn't be friends with bullies? Didn't she show him what she do to the people who hurt her? Where did Luffy get the idea to call guys like that friends?

Because it was definitely not from her.

"I'm going to ask you one thing," the man snarled. "Today, he took our money and ran away with it. Do you happen to know where it is?"

_Attack him now!_ A voice whispered so softly in her mind and for some strange reason, she followed the voice words. She launched herself into the man that was holding Luffy, surprising the man. He immediately dropped Luffy as she kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying to another part of the forest. She growled at the other members of his crew, watching with hooded eyes as they ran away from the forest.

"N-Naru!" Luffy cried out, scrambling to get onto his feet and he stared wide eyed at her, looking like he was about to cry tears of joy to see her.

"Hi Luffy, sorry it took me too long to visit you!" Naru said, smiling at him before gripping him in the arm. He kept on smiling but made no attempt to stop her as she turned him around, searching for any serious injuries that they might have given him. There were no scratches, no bruises and luckily no bleeding on him.

She sighed in relief and hugged the younger boy, causing him to smile even wider as he comforted her. She gently pushed him away, looking at the younger boy with sadness.

"Hey Naru, why are you here?"

"I told you didn't I? I'm visiting you, isn't that what friends do?" Naru asked, smiling at him as she took a seat down on the dirty forest ground. "I would have been here earlier but I hadn't known where you'll live and still wouldn't know if I hadn't overheard Makino-neechan talking to the mayor about you. A good thing too because if I hadn't gotten lost then I wouldn't have found ya, and definitely wouldn't have been able to save ya."

"T-That was so cool!" A voice called out and Naru frowned, turning her head to look at who was speaking. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw that there were two boys around her age, standing up from the bushes. One had blond-hair likes hers while the other had black-hair like Luffy. She glanced at Luffy, who grinned at the boy.

"Who are you? And what the hell are you doing here?" Naru asked, tilting her head while she stared at the two boys in front of her. "And how long have you been here?"

"That's Sabo! And the guy beside him is Ace, Naru! They have been here since befor you came and save me!" Luffy cried out before the two boys could answer him. Naru blinked her eyes at hearing this and stared at them. These boys were the reason why Luffy got hurt! But they didn't look like bad people, except for the dark-haired boy but he just looked grumpy as hell. Great, she was dealing with another grumpy person. "They are my friends, Naru!"

"Friends? How the hell did you make friends with them? I thought no one lived in this mountain," Naru cried out. "And if they are your friends then why the hell haven't they saved ya earlier? And what kind of friend ties people up huh?"

"They were going to save me Naru!" Luffy said, pouting at her. "It was just that they were trying to protect their treasure!"

Naru furrowed her eyebrows and clenched her hands at hearing Luffy's response. "What treasure Luffy? And why was this treasure more important than saving you? I didn't save you because I got too curious but why would a treasure make them not save ya? And I am stupid not to save you faster but still… I mean what would have happen if I weren't here? Would they have saved ya or leave you to die?"

"But you did save me, Naru so you don't need to think about it."

Naru opened her mouth to protest against Luffy words before shaking her head. No matter how many times she tried to talk sense to him, the younger boy wouldn't understand or care. How could he? Even she didn't understand why she was thinking like this. She should just be happy Luffy was safe and didn't have any more injuries. As long as Luffy was safe and happy then she didn't need to think of the what-ifs.

Still, she was furious he got tied up.

"By the way, Luffy how did you get tied up?" Naru asked sweetly, giving her friend a smile that told everyone if Luffy didn't tell her the truth, he would be the one to get punch.

Luffy gulped and immediately told her the story of how he got tied up, occasionally giving a glance towards Sabo and Ace. He might not have said their names but Naru knew from those glances that the two boys were the reason why he was tied up. Naru nodded her head, turned to the two boys and slammed both of her fists on the two boys' cheeks. She watched in satisfaction when the two boys tumbled down to the ground, crying out in pain. This was going to teach them a lesson on tying up her little brother figure to the tree and letting him get hurt in the process.

"Why the hell did you punch us?" The black-haired boy snapped.

"Because you tied up Luffy," Naru snapped at him. "I don't know what Luffy did to deserve to get tied up but you shouldn't have done it! This whole forest is filled with starving animals that could have killed Luffy the moment they see him. Did you want him to die or something?"

They didn't answer her instead they avoided her gaze, looking at the looming trees or to Luffy, who had a huge smile on his face. Naru gritted her teeth. She wasn't a genius but the fact they were avoiding her eyes told her that they wanted him to die. She crackled her knuckles before slamming her fist again on the two boys' heads, smiling when she heard them cry out in pain again.

This time they didn't protest against her punch.

"I hate people like you. I hate people who tries to hurt my little brother," Naru hissed at them. "You guys are no better than those vile pirates that are just interested in gold and anything to do with treasure. Shanks told me those pirates wouldn't care if it is a kid who stole money from them or that a kid is innocent in everything. He once told me they wouldn't care about killing a kid. All they care about is gold."

"All pirates hunt for gold!" The blond-haired boy pointed out to her.

"My uncle is a pirate and he doesn't hunt for gold…I think," Naru informed them while she picked up the fallen straw hat that belonged to her uncle. She fingered it for a few minutes, remembering the good times she had with Shanks and Luffy before setting it on Luffy's head. She smiled widely at the sight of Luffy fixing his hat on his head, which was just too big for his head. She giggled when she saw the determined look on Luffy's face. "I was told by a pirate that not all pirates hunt for gold. He told me that being a pirate is more then just hunting for gold and that his crew is his precious people. He told me he became a pirate to have an adventure and Luffy is going to become a pirate just to be pirate king."

"And Naru is going to be a pirate to find a way back home!" Luffy added, giving them a smile.

Naru smiled at this reminder. Home. This was the reason why she wanted to become a pirate. She wanted to find out more about the village she was born into. She wanted to remember the life she once had. To know how she ended up in this village with injuries that could have killed a normal human being as the mayor would whisper to Makino whenever they thought she wasn't paying attention. The only way to know was to become a pirate.

"A way back home? Why would you want that?" The blond-haired boy asked. "Why do you want to become a pirate for that? Can't you just find a boat to take you home?"

"I haven't thought about that," Naru admitted. "But from what Shanks-niichan told me there aren't a lot of people who know where my home is. He is the only person who knows how to get there! He told me he would let me figure out how to get there because it would be no fun for me if he just tells me how to get there. Besides I doubt no ship will take me there, if Shanks didn't want to go there because of how scary it is then no other ship will want to go there."

"It might have changed from what this Shanks have remembered," The blond haired boy pointed out to her.

"You can't just believe in his words," the black-haired boy added.

"Makino-neechan found me covered in blood and with very bad injuries that could have killed any normal person," Naru informed them. "And besides someone has to make sure Luffy doesn't do anything stupid or get distracted on his journey."

"Uh huh! You are going to be apart of my crew and no one else!" Luffy said, puffing his chest out at her. Naru giggled at his behavior. If there was one thing, she couldn't deny about Luffy was the fact that he was stubborn about her being in his crew and no one else. He didn't even like it when Shanks would tease him about taking her with him and leaving him behind.

"I did say that to you, right?"

"Of course you did! Told me that you'll be apart of my crew as long as I don't do anything…" he scratched his head as he tried to remember the words that she always said to him.

"Too stupid," Naru yawned, stretching her arms as she did so. "And as long as I have some say on who is on the crew and what crewmember comes first!"

"But I'm the captain, I should decide…"

"Are you questioning me?" Naru asked, cracking her fist.

The younger boy gulped. "No!"

The blond-haired boy, Sabo laughed at this while Ace seemed to have a barely noticeable smile on his face but their smiles and laughter were gone when Naru shot them a dark look at them. Those two didn't have any right to be furious with her best-friend, not when they were the reason she had nearly lost the one boy whom she cared deeply for.

Besides, they haven't seen her when she was really pissed.

With that in mind, she slammed both of her fists against the two boys' heads and watched in satisfaction as a huge lump was formed on their heads before deciding to twist their arms. They yelled out in pain. She smiled in joy at this sound, feeling the satisfaction of hurting those boys for laughing at her friend and pay back for putting him in harms way. Luffy kept his smile as the boys fell down to the ground, clutching their arms in pain.

Naru raised her eyebrows at the furious look that the two boys shot at her, crossing her arms against her chest and said plainly, "That was for getting Luffy into harm's way! I would have hurt the pair of you even more if it weren't for the fact that I'm a hypocrite about making sure Luffy isn't in harm ways. I did that too many times to Luffy."

Luffy tilted his head at her and asked, "What does hypocrite mean?"

The blonde pinched her nose at his question and answered, "Well, you know how I tell you never to swear even through I swear myself?"

"Yes."

"That's being a hypocrite."

"It's a mystery hypocrite."

Naru rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to try to explain it even further detail but decided against it. No matter how much she would try to explain it to her best friend, he would never get the concept of being hypocrite. If she could only make him read books and use his head a little bit more then there wouldn't be any problems but, getting Luffy to read was like talking to a mountain: one-sided and impossible.

She shook her head and looked at the two boys, who stared at her and looked as if they had questions to ask her but didn't seem to look as if they had the words to express their questions. Shrugging her shoulder, Naru looked at Luffy, who seemed to be content in staring at the scenery around them. It surprised her how he didn't have any injuries but she was glad. It would have been too painful for her to stand the sight of his injuries. It would also be painful to explain to Makino that she had found Luffy injured and how she left him in that state.

"Why the hell would you choose to be a part of the crew and not a pirate captain? And why him of all people?" Ace asked, surprising her as well as the two boys beside her.

Naru furrowed her eyebrows. "I just don't like the idea of being a captain and I choose Luffy because I know him and I know how he needs someone to keep an eye on him. Besides, he has been in my life for so long now that I can't imagine not having him around. Also he seems like he is going to be a fun captain and I like having fun. If it helps, I doubt I will be suitable to be a captain, a captain has to be permanent and I ain't going to stick around a lot when I find my home."

"You're not leaving me!" Luffy said firmly, crossing his arms at her.

She shook her head at Luffy and pointed out, "Luffy, I told you that I'll leave you when you find my home. I've people waiting for me back home and you know that!"

"You don't know that!"

Naru froze at his words and looked up to the clear blue sky. She had never expected Luffy to say that but then again, the boy said things without thinking. He never ever thought about his words. He didn't know that hearing that, was painful for her to hear. He didn't know that she didn't want that to be true. That she didn't want to think that there might be a chance that she had been…

She shook her head at the trail of thought and looked at Luffy, who continued to smile at her. She envied him for being able to smile so easily, for stating the one fact that she kept denying to herself. She knew he could be right. She didn't know if she had her parents waiting for her back home, she was just basing it on hopes and from the necklace that clung to her neck.

"No matter what you say, I'm going to still insist that you be a permanent member of my crew!" Luffy said and the blonde couldn't help but smile at hearing those words from her friend's mouth.

"You know no matter how you insist on that, I will still insist that I can't be a permanent member of your crew Luffy!" Naru said firmly, crossing her arms at her chest before looking at the younger boy, who still had a smile on his face. She sighed, knowing from the glint in his eyes that he would continue insisting that she stayed on his crew.

"You're going to stay in my crew!"

"Even if my dream is to see my home?" she asked, frowning at him.

"Well we will go to your home and you will see them before setting sail!" Luffy said, smiling widely at her. Naru chuckled at his words, deciding to keep her insistence of not being a permanent member of the crew to herself until the next day. She would let him continue believing this but nothing he could say would changed her mind.

"Where do you think your home might be?" Sabo asked, looking at her with child-like interest and curiosity.

"No clue," Naru admitted, running her hand through her long blond-hair before looking at Luffy, who looked up at her. "Shanks didn't tell me anything about the location of my home. All he told me is that I am an Uzumaki because of my necklace and that I will find my way there because I am an Uzumaki and no Uzumaki ever gives up. But it must be in the new world because we don't get any news from the new world…I think."

"You think?"

Naru nodded her head and gave the three of them a thoughtful look. "Well I don't have any memories of my home and what I do know is from what Shanks told me. I know that I am from Konoha but that is it. I don't know if I have parents or anything like that since my memories of my home is gone so I can't remember where it is or how I got here."

"Naru came from the sea!" Luffy added giddily.

Naru nodded her head. "Makino-neechan and the other villagers found me in the beach, bleeding and everything. After that I can't remember anything except remembering see Makino-neechan's kind eyes and her asking me for my name. I think after that I ask her about the Hokage but I don't know if I really asked about it or it was just me dreaming about it."

"The Hokage is someone really important right Naru?" Luffy asked, looking wide-eyed at her.

Naru smiled at him. "Yup, the Hokage is the leader of the village."

"The leader of what village?" The black-haired boy asked.

"Konoha," Naru answered immediately. "My village was called Konoha or so Shanks-niichan says. He say the land there are bloodthirsty but it is beautiful. I don't know if it really is or it is just Shank-niichan way of trying to cheer me up."

"Shanks does lie to us."

"He loves teasing us," Naru agreed, staring up at the sky. "Remember how he raises our hopes that he will take us with him but only to find some excuse that just brings down our hope."

"We are going to be better pirates then him!" Luffy declared.

"Before becoming better pirates, you need to learn how to defend yourself," Naru said firmly, staring hard at Luffy. In the corner of her eyes, she could see the two boys snickering at him. "And learn not to trust everyone especially someone who is willing to let you get hurt just to protect their precious treasure."

The two boy stopped snickering and flinched at her words.

"We didn't mean for Luffy to get hurt," The blond haired boy informed her.

"It was just that he kept following me even when I tried to give him the message that I don't want him following me," The black-haired boy admitted, glaring at the younger boy. "What kind of kid doesn't understand that I don't want him following me after I keep making him go through dangerous path?"

Naru glanced at Luffy and then at the dark-haired boy before groaning. "I don't know what I am going to do with you Luffy. If this is what you are going to do with someone who you aren't going to as to be a part of your crew then I don't know what you are going to do with someone you want to be part of the crew."

"What do you mean?" Luffy asked.

"I mean you are taking it to the extreme," Naru answered. "Why did you follow him when he goes through a dangerous path? I mean isn't it obvious he doesn't want you around? If he makes you go through all that then you better give up on him. If you have gotten hurt, what do you think I am going to do?"

"Hit Ace because he hurt me," Luffy answered automatically.

Naru opened her mouth to protest before sighing. "Alright I will do that too but I was thinking more like I am going to hit you because you were being an idiot again. Anyways, you are safe and I think that is more important than anything else. But Ace if you dare get my little brother hurt again I will be the one teaching you not to hurt anymore kids."

He nodded his head tensly, not bothering to argue with her about how she wouldn't be able to hurt him.

"Oh yeah, Luffy, mind telling me the way back home? I kinda didn't tell Makino-neechan that I came here."

"Why? You always tell Makino where you go."

"She would have told me that she would come with me, saying that I'm still too young to go to the forest by myself!" Naru looked up at the sky. "I'm not that young! You're here and you are able to survive! How am I any different?"

"You are a girl."

Naru crossed her arms at Ace and gave him a glare while Sabo kept his mouth shut. Luffy simply took a step back and informed the older boy, "You shouldn't say that to Naru. Naru is very strong. She is the strongest person in the whole village; no one can match Naru in strength."

"Not true Grap is a lot stronger then me," Naru argued. "And we don't know that I am the strongest person in the village."

Luffy stared at her and nodded his head. "But you sent a boy to the hospital!"

"I didn't mean too!" Naru argued. "We were just arguing and he just said something that made me so angry that I just hit him without thinking. You know what I am like when I get really angry!"

The younger boy turned pale, remembering what the blond-haired girl could be like when she got angry with someone. Naru frowned. She wasn't that scary when she got angry was she? Makino didn't seem frighten of her when she got angry and Shanks told her she looked so adorable when she was angry. Then again, Shanks was a weirdo and Makino was just too used to weird people coming to the village.

Naru shook her head at this thought and stared at the two young boys who kept staring at her and Luffy. She pressed her hand against the whirlpool necklace, feeling the comfort of the cold metallic necklace against her chest and found herself taking in a big breath as she sat down on the ground, rubbing her sore ribs.

"So do any of you boys know the shortest way to get back to the village?" Naru asked, looking at the two of them.

"Why should we tell you? You got here by yourself, you could go back the way you came!" Ace said, glaring at her.

"Because I don't know how to go home and it is only polite to tell someone how to go back home," Naru said, frowning at him. "And you should stop glaring at me, you will look very old if you keep doing that. It is a fact Makino told me and Makino never lies. Also, if you tell me how to get back then I will forgive you for getting Luffy hurt."

"And what makes you think I want your forgivness?"

"Because we are going to be friends and I don't like the idea of being angry with my friends," Naru said matter-of-factly and this caused the boy to look at her in shock. "Why are you so surprise? I don't have many friends and any friend of Luffy is a friend of mine."

"And what makes you think I want to be friends with a girl?"

"Why wouldn't you want to be friends with a girl?"

"Because girls cry too much."

"I don't cry."

"Girls don't like getting dirty."

"I don't mind getting dirty, ask Luffy."

Ace turned his head to look at Luffy and the younger boy nodded his head at Ace. "Naru is the only girl in the village who plays with the boys. All the other girls like playing dolls or watching the boys play but Naru likes to go and play with them."

"Anyways if you don't want to be my friend fine but if I don't see you try to make up your mistake then I will tell your caretaker that you got Luffy hurt or Luffy's grandfather," Naru said, smiling at them. "I don't know if you know him but he won't be happy to know what you nearly did to him and who nearly killed him…"

Ace turned paled at her words, looking visibly shaken at her words. The blonde grinned. She knew better than anyone that Garp was not a man that you wanted to face when angered. He had made her go through the same horror that Luffy went through, saying she was going to be a marine along with Luffy and not some pirate.

She would rather be pirate then marine if that meant she didn't work for any man that was like him.

"But you're too scared to tell Gramps."

"Not if it meant that you were about to be killed!" Naru said, putting her hands around her head, frowning as she looked at the smiling boy. "I will pretend that I don't have any dislike or any fear for your grandfather if that meant he makes sure you are my safe. You're my best-friend and I'll do anything to make sure you don't get hurt."

"But my punches are as strong as a pistol! I don't need you protecting me!" Luffy whined.

"Sure it is," the two boys muttered. "You had a girl saving ya."

"He wouldn't have needed saving from me if one of you boys had decided to man up and save him," Naru retorted. "If he hadn't been tied up, he would have been able to run away and hence wouldn't need me to surprise those three and attack them. Besides, it's good that I save him because if I haven't then there was no doubt that they would have done some serious damage."

The two boys didn't seem to flinch at her words but she could tell from their body language that they did seem a little bit guilty for what happened to Luffy. She took a deep breath, stretching her ribs and winced as she felt the throbbing pain in her ribs. Maybe it would be a wonderful idea if she doesn't go saving people without protecting her valuable parts.

She rubbed her knuckles and said, "I really should get going before Makino-san finds out that I'm not really in the library like I claimed to be."

"Don't you hate the library, Naru?" Luffy asked.

"I despise it, Luffy!" Naru said as she headed towards the path. "But I'll be using that excuse a lot to visit you! Now let us get me back home!"

Luffy grinned and ran towards the forest. Naru chuckled and looked at the two boys, who seemed to be confused at what to do and this caused the blonde to shake her head and said, "Well are the two of you coming or not? I can't trust Luffy to take me back home! He's going to get me lost! And I can't get lost! Besides, I'm curious to know how you stole gold from a pirate!"

The two boys hesitated but it didn't take long before they ran after Luffy, telling him that he was going the wrong way and this caused the young blonde to laugh out loud at the three of them.

So that was the story of how Naru saved Luffy from a couple of pirates and the story of how she first met Ace and Sabo.

* * *

A/N: I would like to hear your thoughts about this chapter and I apologize if any of the characters seemed to be too out of character.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry for the late update but a lot of things happened in the past year. I had relatives dropping in and out, went oversea, had school and a lot of bunch of things so please forgive me for not updating.**

**~X~**

Today had been one of the best days of her life, Naru decided as she walked through the usual path to her usual meeting place with Luffy and their friends. She helped Makino with the orders in the bar, earning the reward of having her favourite food being cooked by the older woman. She had gotten tips from the customers, helping her in the funding for Luffy and her dreams as well as going to the library, where she borrowed her favourite book again. It also didn't help not once had she been attacked on her way here. So yes, today was a good day for her.

She stopped smiling when she reached the meeting spot, where Luffy, Ace and Sabo were sitting there with bruises on their body and blood leaking out of their faces. She felt her heart raced with worry and her throat becoming drier as she noticed just how wounded they were. Scowling, she rushed towards the three boys, one of whom had a sheepish smile on his face.

"What are you three doing standing up? Sit down!" She yelled, pointing towards the three tree stumps. The boys opened their mouth to argue but closed it, making her smile widely at them. When she first met those two boys, she thought they were complete idiots but it seemed like they weren't completely stupid. They at least knew how to take orders when needed. "What the hell happened to the three of you? I was gone only for one day, only one day and look at you! You guys got yourself injured!"

Growling at the three boys, she opened her bag and searched for the spare bandages she always kept at hand because being friends with Luffy meant you always had to have bandages with you at all times. She felt her breath quickened when she could not find the bandages in their usual place! It had to be there! She was forgetful but she remembered putting it in her bag! She sighed and relaxed her shoulders when she noticed the bandages were still there, were just beside her favourite book.

With the bandages in her hand, Naru stared at the three boys and to their wounds as she tried her best to figure out who looked to have the worst injuries. Out of the three boys, Sabo had the least injuries but the same couldn't be said for Luffy and Ace. So who did she treat first? Luffy or Ace? Her best friend or the asshole? Both of them had bleeding arms and had wounds on their head but Luffy had more bruises then Ace.

Nodding her head, she made her way towards Luffy and promptly put a Band-Aid on the side of his face. The boy had a large smile on his face but the smile dropped when she glared at him and her glare turned even colder when he started to squirm in his seat. Honestly, couldn't he stay still for one moment? She bit her lips when she felt how tender and sore the boy cheeks were and had to stop herself from yelling at the other two boys for what happened. They were only saved by Luffy's smile because if he weren't smiling, she would be making those two boys have even more wounds.

"What happened to the three of you? How the hell did this happen? You guys look like you went through war or something!" She stated as she wrapped the bandages tightly over Luffy's arm. Pausing in her work, she looked at the two boys with hopeful eyes. Sabo avoided looking her in the eyes while Ace simply gave her a hard look and grunted at her question. She growled at their behavior. "Tell me what the hell happened to the three of you? Why the hell are all three of you wounded huh? Why are all of you bleeding? I want to know what is happening!"

The two boys looked at each other, to Luffy and to their surroundings as she waited for them to answer, for them to look her in the eye and explained what happened. The way they avoided her eyes and the silence between them all made her want to strangle them but they were Luffy friends and she was not going to do any harm to his friends. Licking her lips, Naru willed her hands to stop shaking so that she could bandage Luffy's head properly though she wanted to mess with it, to make the idiot learn about getting into fights.

"A member of Bluejam is what happened," Sabo said it so quiet that Naru had to strained her ear to hear him properly. "They attacked us."

Time seemed to stopped when Sabo said those words to her. Nothing came to her mind when he told her the words 'they attacked us'. For a brief moment, she felt like a small little girl again, blank and confused at what was happening. It was like she was waking up from a coma again and having strangers surrounding her, telling her things she didn't understand. It was almost as if the whole world was against her, felt as if a bucket of freezing cold had been poured over her and she was experiencing it's aftereffects.

"Why?" She finally asked when she got over her shock. "Why did they attack you guys? You guys didn't do anything to them…you weren't the ones to hurt them that was all me! Why did they attack you guys?"

"It was my fault!" Luffy answered. Naru turned her head to look at him and for the first time since her relative left them, the younger boy had tears pouring over his eyes. For the first time in a month, her friend looked so guilty that Naru was afraid of his well-being because he would do anything to make up for his mistakes. She opened her mouth to tell him otherwise but the words were jumbled in her throat as she tried to take in the fact that her friend had been attacked by a member of Bluejam, that she hadn't been there to save him.

"What happened?" Naru whispered when the words finally spilled out of her mouth. "Why is it your fault, Luffy? Why would ya blame yourself, huh?"

Luffy took in a shaky breath, looking at her with so much sorrow and pain that she just wanted to wrapped her arms around him and tell him that everything was going to be alright but for his sake, she wouldn't do that to him. Instead, she continued to wrap the bandages around his legs and listened as he told her about how the crew surprised him and how they tried to force him to tell him where the treasure was. Every now and then, she would freeze as she listened about the punches they gave him and the spikes they used.

"…And, and Ace and Sabo came to save me, Naru!" Luffy cried, looking teary-eyed at her.

She stopped bandaging Luffy's arms when she heard him say this and stared at the two boys, who looked away from her gaze. She needed to say something to them, to tell them the word thanks but something stopped her from doing it. No, nothing was stopping her from saying it but no amount of words could express her feelings towards this. She knew no amount of thanks could amount to the feelings building up in her heart or how guilty she felt for causing them so much trouble because none of this would have happened if she hadn't punched that mean man!

"Ace come over here," she barked at the freckled boy as she gestured for Luffy to take a seat beside Sabo. The dark-haired boy opened his mouth to protest, maybe to protest her touching him because she could give him cooties, could give him some weird disease that boys believed would make them a girl. She didn't understand where boys got the idea playing with girls would give them some kind of sickness. Shaking her head, Naru walked over to where Ace was sitting and grabbed him by the ear to the stump.

"Why the hell did you do that?"

"How am I suppose to help you if ya don't come near me huh? I don't have superpowers y'know! Out of everyone here, I'm the only one who can do this! I can't have you guys bandaging yourself up! I'm well so I can do this! Now shut the hell up and let me do this you idiot!" She yelled, making the boy looked at her in surprise for what she just said. Taking in a shaky breath, she continued on with her rant, "You're badly injured, the three of you and I can't let three wounded people make themselves more wounded because they need to bandage each other! I'm not injured so the least I can do is make sure you guys don't bleed any more! Do you understand? I…I can't let you guys continue walking with those wounds!"

Ace didn't say anything, didn't ask her why she changed her mind about them and for this, Naru was grateful because she didn't want to talk about it. There was no way she could explain about why she wasn't calling them names, not fighting with him about something stupid or why she wasn't trying to protect Luffy. She didn't want to give him the real reason why she wasn't letting them do their own bandages. Shaking her head, she looked at the cloth she used to clean up Luffy wounds and grimaced. Makino-neechan never used the same cloth when patching her wounds. She didn't know why she didn't use the same cloth but Naru knew it was for a good reason. Glancing at her skirt, Naru made her decision.

_RIP!_

She laughed at the sight of a wide-eyed Luffy and a blushing Ace and Sabo, who were trying their best to avoid looking at her tanned legs, which were now exposed. This earned scowls from the two boys, who looked at her as if she was weird while Luffy laughed along with her, making her smile even harder. If Makino knew what she just did, the woman would give her light scolding and tell her about how improper it was for a girl to do such things.

Not like she cared about those things because they were the same weren't they? They wasn't a big difference between boys and girls except with their body parts right?

"W-Why the hell did you do that?" She couldn't help but rolled her eyes at how Sabo was avoiding her eyes.

"Makino-neechan never used the same cloth whenever she used to treat me from my injuries, same goes for the doc! I don't know why they don't but I know there's a reason why you shouldn't use the same cloth. The cloth that I used to wipe Luffy is also dirty and I like dirt but I don't want to use it on people who are already dirty," the two boys scowled at her comment, "So I thought I should use my shirt since I've nothing else to use!" she curled her lips into a smile, "And I really wanted to get rid of this skirt! I hate skirts so this is a good reason to use it…though I don't know how to explain it to Makino-neechan."

"You could have used something else if you don't know how to explain it!"

"Like what smartass? A plant?" She glared at him. "I don't know a damn thing about plants but I do know if I used the wrong one on you then you're going to get hurt! Makino-neechan always told me not to pick any plants I don't know since they can be dangerous! I might not like you guys but I don't want to kill you! I can't forgive myself if you guys get hurt because of my mistake!"

Ace blinked his eyes but didn't say anything to her, didn't try to argue with her if anything he looked too shock to say anything to her. Shaking her head at him, she continued to tend to him and once she saw his bleeding had stopped, she tightly bandaged his two arms before making her way towards his head. She gently touched the wound on his head, felt her lips curled when she finally took in how badly injured the boy was. She might dislike him but Naru could not deny that Ace was cute, too cute for his own good she decided. Her frown deepened as the blood from his wound seep onto her fingers. Taking the ripped skirt cloth, she cleared up the blood from his face before resting it on his head. While she did that, bits of his hair tickled her hand and this caused the blonde to smile and even laugh at this.

"Why the hell are you laughing?"

"I can't help it! Your hair is tickling me!" She smiled widely at him, earning a strange look from both Ace and Sabo. Shaking her head, Naru allowed herself to pet his hair and was surprised to know that the black-haired boy had hair as soft as the cats in the village. "Y'know your hair is even softer then mine! It's so soft that I think I can spend a whole day petting it! Still how the hell can a guy have a hair softer then a girl! All the girls in our village would be so jealous of you because of that!"

Ace scowled and looked down at his feet while both Luffy and Sabo laughed at her words, making her scowl at the pair of them. She glanced at Ace before glaring at the two boys. "Why the hell are you two laughing? If you want me to take care of your wounds Sabo, you better keep your mouth shut! And Luffy don't make me come over there and hit you!" Both boys kept their mouth shut, making her smile in satisfaction at them. Nodding her head, she continued to bandage Ace's head, pausing every now and then to make sure she didn't bandage his whole head.

Her job would be easier if a certain someone wasn't glaring at her and reaching for the stick beside her.

"Move one more inch Ace and I'll break that stick of yours!" She snarled, trying to wrap the bandage around the twitching boy. "You can go to your damn stick when I'm done putting these bandages on you! Now sit still and let me do this!"

"Why should I?"

"Because bastard, you're bleeding and if I don't stop your bleeding then there's a chance you're going to bleed to death! I don't want that! I don't want you or anyone else to die!" He stopped moving when she said this, giving her such a strange look that Naru almost stopped what she was doing to ask him what was wrong. Shaking her head, she tied a knot on his head and looked down at the frozen boy. Licking her dried lips, she smiled at him. "Who knew I could make the great Ace speechless! I should write it down, Naru made Ace speechless! Y'know I should add that with knowing three boys that are very reckless!"

"Says the girl that attacked the member of Bluejam and got us to pay for her mistake!" Ace scowled. "It's your fault it happened! If you hadn't attack their member then none of this would have happened!"

She winced at his words and without thinking, she glanced at the bandaged face of Luffy and then to the Sabo's bruised face before finally looking at the bloodied bandages of Ace. Just staring at them made it feel like she been punched on the gut. All those wounds were caused because of her, because of her desire to protect her best friend. If she hadn't gone to the forest that day then none of them would have gotten hurt, if she had just been a little bit stronger then Luffy wouldn't have been threatened and none of them would have gotten hurt.

She wanted to apologize for her actions. She really did but she couldn't find the words to say it or be sincere about it. What she had done was horrible, so horrible that she felt as if she deserved to be punished for the crime she had done to them. Yet, memories of Luffy being throttled by those men pushed those thoughts away and the urge to murder someone for hurting her friend was great. She hadn't meant for them to get caught up with her fight or even thought that the big man would have came to them after she had left.

"I know and I should say sorry for that but I'll be the biggest liar if I ever said I regret saving Luffy from those men," her voice broke and for once in her life, tears were streaming down through her eyes. "If I hadn't attack them then none of you would have gotten hurt but I can't help it. Luffy is my friend, my only friend and he's like family to me. Him, Makino, and Shanks are one of the few people I would protect with my life! But…but I didn't expect this to happen! Not one bit! I was hoping, praying even that he's a coward, that he wouldn't hurt him or the two of you for what I did!"

"Well you were wrong!"

Luffy stood up and looked like he wanted to yell at Ace for what he said but as tempting as it was, Naru wouldn't let Luffy do it. She might have known these guys for a few days but she could see just how much the younger boy looked up to him and knew how much it would ripped him apart to yell at his role model. So one smile from her and Luffy sat down, reluctantly but he understood the message from her. She glanced at Sabo, who looked torn at his words and looked ready to scold him but she shook her head and he stared at her with confusion.

"Yeah I was wrong, I was wrong about a lot of things y'know. I thought you and Sabo were bunch of jerks because of what ya did to Luffy," Naru admitted and he raised his eyebrows at her, causing her to smile widely at him. "The two of you aren't that much of jerks, just a bunch of boys that act stupid. Despite nearly killing Luffy a couple of days ago, you saved him. Not a lot of people would do that; very few people would do something as courageous as that. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm grateful for what the two of you did for him."

"Unfortunately, thanks to us being good guys, we now have the Bluejam's crew who won't forgive us," Sabo said, frowning at the two of them. "They'll be after us from now on."

Grimacing at this, Naru rubbed her chin and looked at Luffy. She couldn't stop herself from scowling at the sight of the younger boy having tears streaming down his cheek. Everytime she saw his tears, all she wanted to do was to remind him that he was a boy, about how ugly he looked with snot coming out of his nose and how she couldn't take him seriously whenever his lips were curled into a whimper. It wasn't for the fact she knew the younger boy had such a hard time, Naru would have punched Luffy on the face.

"It was so scary Naru," Naru took in a deep breath at hearing this, at hearing how much pain her friend was from the experience he had. She tied the last knot of Ace's bandage before going to Sabo, who just took a seat on the rock beside Ace, not looking one bit bothered she was the one to bandage him up. She closed her eyes as she felt Sabo's wrist, trying to remember her sister's figure teaching on injuries. From what she felt, it seemed like he had a sprained wrist, which was good because it seemed to be the only injuries he had. Her heart broke into a million pieces as she heard the cries of Luffy. If it weren't for the fact she needed to tie the bandages on Sabo, she would rush to the boy in a heartbeat.

"You're so annoying!" Naru shook her head and glared at the older boy, who twisted his head away from her. "Shut the hell up! How long are you gonna keep crying?"

"Why the hell are you snapping at him for? He has been kidnapped by a bunch of pirates you think he won't cry! I woulda cry if I was in his shoes! Those pirates weren't like Shanks-niichan, they don't laugh!" Naru placed the final band-aid on Sabo, handing him the last couple of bandages and then proceeded to glare at the older boy. "Besides telling Luffy not to cry is stupid because he isn't going to listen! If anything it makes him cry even more! If Shanks-niichan was here then he wouldn't get into this mess because he woulda protect him without a second thought! And you're meanie too! Who tells a baby not to cry! Only a meanie that's who!"

"How the hell am I a meanie?"

"You're a big meanie, making Luffy chase after you through that forest!" she snapped. "And you left him to get attack by those mean pirates? And you made him cry, anyone who makes Luffy cry is a big meanie!"

"I'm not a meanie! I didn't tell him to chase after me!" He snarled. "Besides, he's being a crybaby! He chose to do this so he should take it like a man!"

Naru gritted her teeth and without even thinking, she slammed her fist against his face. The older boy blinked his eyes while Luffy gazed wide-eyed at her. "If you insult him any further, I'll punch you even harder! Besides even men cry, Shanks-niichan cries too and he's a grown-up so that means even men cry! It isn't stupid cry! It isn't stupid because sometimes you can't stop yourself from crying! Not only that, out of the three you, he got the worst injuries! His forehead is leaking out blood, there are scratches on his cheeks and there are bruises all over his body! And they tried to kill him! Death isn't something to make light of you idiot!"

"Naru, I was just so…" Naru closed her eyes and took in a shaky breath as she went to the boy, bringing him closer to her chest. The tears coming from his eyes strained her shirt and made her shirt clung to her skin as she hugged him, whispering as many comforting words that she knew. She could handle his tears as long as it meant that he let things out, as long as it meant that it wouldn't torment her or Luffy.

She could handle…

"_Why are you all alone, child?"_

Numbly, Naru felt herself stumbled to the ground as a memory flooded into her mind, threatening to consume her whole body. She saw a smiling old man with a big funny hat, a man who despite having a smile, felt sad at seeing her. Her heart seemed to be aching, seemed to be telling her that this man was like her family in the same way Shanks-niischan and Makino-neechan felt. She could feel tears threatening to come out but she held it back, knowing crying would make Luffy worry for her. The last thing she wanted was to make him worry or cry even harder. For today, she was Luffy's rock.

Patting his back, Naru hummed a lullaby that Shanks taught, a tune he said that all Uzumaki's kids should know. She grimaced at the feeling of her friend's snot sticking to her favorite shirt. Her heart thrumped and burned at the growing cries of her friend. Was this her fault? She asked herself. Was it wrong to try to save her friend from the pirates? Was it wrong to punch them? No, it wasn't wrong because they didn't kill Luffy. As long as he was safe, nothing else matter.

She gazed at Ace, who avoided her gaze instead fixing his eyes at the crying boy. The way he curled his lips, told her he wanted to yell at the younger boy for crying but Naru wasn't going to let him yell. "If you even think of yelling at Luffy, injured or not I'm going to punch you again! What's your problem with crying I don't know but don't tell the idiot not to cry," she narrowed her eyes at him, "Makino-neechan always said if someone holds back their feelings then they're going to get sick and if you think Luffy is bad when he cries then he's going to be ten times worse if he sick especially since it'll be the first time he has been sick."

"He needs to act like a man."

"He's seven, which makes him a baby not a man!"

"When I was seven I didn't cry as much as him."

"Of course not because you don't care about anyone but yourself," Ace growled at her. "You want me to take those words back? Prove to me you care about someone other then yourself! You might have saved Luffy but you don't bother to comfort him! Friends comfort each other!" With those words, she turned away from him and continued to pat Luffy's back. When she was sure Luffy stopped crying, she pushed him off of her. He rubbed his eyes and gazed at her with wobbling lips but Naru shook her head, giving him a smile and ruffled his hair like the way Shanks used to do. Luffy was going to become stronger, so strong that he was going to become the Pirate King.

"Thank you for saving me!" Luffy said, staring at the two older boys. Naru didn't need to turn around to know that Ace was irriated with Luffy, after all he just radiated that feeling. She shook her head, gazed at the clear blue sky before drawing Luffy towards her, earning yell of protests from Luffy. The yells of protest stopped when she wrapped her arms around his waist just how Makino used to do whenever one of them woke up from a scary nightmare or whenever she cried at not remembering her home clearly.

"Why you…"

"Finish that sentence and I finish you. Luffy is thanking you not calling you stupid."

"She has a point."

"You're taking her side."

"She has a point, he's thanking us," Sabo pointed out, trying to calm down the irritated boy, who looked ready to throttle Luffy and her. "And Naru isn't kidding, if you say anything else then Naru is going to kill you if you hurt Luffy's feelings."

Ace grumbled at these words, crossing his arms as he glared at Luffy and her. The blonde rolled her eyes. "If ya think I'm scared of you then you got another thing coming! You're as scary as a kitty! If anything, it is irritating! And why do you always give those looks? It makes ya look ugly! You should try and smile for once, it makes a real difference y'know!And also can you be a little bit nice to Luffy? I don't think Luffy can handle those glares after going through what he went through!"

"Why didn't you tell them, huh?" He asked, ignoring her question as he stared at the sobbing boy. "Those men would kill women and children without a second thought." 

Naru felt her throat tightened at his words, her whole body trembling as an image of a deceased Luffy rushed through her mind. She could pictured his mangled body in her mind, could see that huge smile on his face as he died and that thought made her eyes burned, made her whole body quivered with fear for his safety.

If Luffy had died…she gulped the lump down and shook her head furiously at this thought. Her heart rate quickened like it was doing a race and it took her hugging Luffy tightly for her to remind herself that it hadn't happened. That her best friend wasn't dead, that he was alive.

She could feel Luffy tensing at her trembling, like he was almost acutely aware of her thoughts. Maybe he did know her thoughts. He was after all the only friend she had which meant that he knew everything about her. He knew about how she wanted to go home, about the fact that she loved the colour orange, that her favorite food was ramen, about her lack of memories and her frustration about that. He knew where to find her when she was frustrated, knew how to cheer her up when she was sad and definitely knew of her hopes.

"Naru, I'm fine! And those meanies won't ever hurt me again!" Luffy said, smiling at her and the blonde smiled at his words. She wanted to call him out for that, to tell him that he didn't know that. That they can't ever be certain because look what happened to him and the others, she thought it wouldn't happen but it did happen. If they came after them again, she didn't know if any one of them would survived especially Luffy. If they got attacked then she couldn't save them. She just wasn't strong enough against those pirates.

"I hope you're right, Luffy," Naru whispered as Ace crossed his arms, tapping his feet impatiently, waiting for Luffy to answer his question. "And I think Ace wants you to answer his question about why you didn't tell them. I think if you don't tell him, then he'll be even more grumpy."

Luffy looked at her closely, looking as if he was trying to see if she was going to break down in any moment but smiled and nodded his head when he saw her smiling widely at him. She knew that he knew that it was a fake smile. Knew that she was trying her hardest, not to break down again. In the four years, she had lived in this small village, he along with Makino had been the only people to see the difference between her fake smile from her real smile. Knew when to questioned her and they both knew that he shouldn't question her when she felt emotional.

They both knew she couldn't handle telling him about what was going through her mind.

"If I'd told them…I could never be your friend," Luffy admitted and Naru found her smile wavering at his words.

"That would be better than dying, right?" Ace asked harshly. "Why do you want to be my friend so much, anyway?"

"Yeah Luffy! What's wrong with just me being your friend? That idiot doesn't seem to want to be your friend. It makes you an idiot!"

"Because…"

"She's right especially after all the stuff I put through," Ace said furiously. "Why did you still follow us out there?"

"Because there isn't anybody else! I can't return to the village and I can't see Naru, as much as I used too since she can't keep lying to Makino about where the hell she is! And I hate those mountain bandits!" Luffy said. "If I didn't chase after the two of you, I'd be all alone! Being alone is much more worse then getting hurt!"

"_Why do people hate me? Why am I so alone? Why don't people like me?"_

Naru bit her lips from crying out loud from the memory. She remembered that memory so well, so painfully well. She had been trying to play with the other kids but none of them would let her, all of them had taunted her. Calling her names, saying things that she didn't want to hear but what was worse was the glares from their parents as she tried to play with them. When it finally came to her that they didn't want to be her friends, she ran and ran to her apartment.

An empty apartment with no one waiting for her.

She remembered how she looked in the mirror and tried to find out what made them disliked her but nothing came to her mind. She remembered counting her fingers and her toes, thinking maybe she didn't have the same number of toes and fingers but found they were the same as them. She tried seeing if she was ugly but she didn't see anything ugly, she looked just as pretty as any of those parents' kids.

After that, she didn't have any memories.

Naru found herself clenching her hands into a fist at these memories. "Being lonely is painful, just as painful as being hurt…Luffy isn't wrong. When you're lonely, there's an ache that can't be fulfilled, an ache that makes you wonder if you're even alive! No matter what you do, there's always an ache in your heart. No matter how hard you try, no one would ever like you and the worst thing is…you don't even know why!"

"Naru, that wasn't what I meant!"

"I know but that's my feeling on loneliness," She stared blankly at the sky, "My memories of my home is that I'm lonely, no one waiting for me at the house and now I wonder why Shanks-niichan didn't come for me. Maybe he didn't know me then but it woulda been nice if he was there for me. That loneliness I felt made it seem as if I was going to go mad, become a demon like the stories Makino-neechan tells us. Now I don't feel like that because…I had you to chase them."

"I'm not with you anymore…do you still feel lonely?"

"You're no longer in the village so I still feel lonely but it isn't bad as those memories," Naru smiled widely at him, "It isn't painful because I have Makino-neechan to take it away and if it gets painful, I'll visit Sabo and you…maybe Ace," Ace snorted, "After all I can annoy you guys if I find out they hurt your feelings or if you get lost again."

"I won't get lost!"

"Sure you won't get lost, I believe ya," Naru said automatically.

"You're being mean again!"

"Me mean?" Naru looked offended at his words before laughing at the pout that Luffy gave her. "Fine, I'm being a little bit mean but you have to admit that you can get lost."

"But you don't have to say it!"

"I can say whatever I damn want, Luffy!" Naru said, jumping up from the rock and looking at the two boys with interest and curiosity. She hadn't cared much about the two of them in the beginning however that changed when they saved Luffy. Looking at the two of them, she couldn't see their strength. Both of them were scrawny and skinny, not looking as if they could pack a punch or even fight properly but from the sobs of Luffy that seemed to be untrue.

"I don't know if I said this to you two but you guys surprised me even if one of you makes me so angry that I have to punch you," Naru said, looking at the two squirming boys. Sabo frowned at her words, furrowing his eyebrows to say something but decided against it, looking at her thoughtfully and carefully. Ace, on the other hand, simply gave her an icy look, looking rather annoyed by the fact that she was still staring at them.

"What did we do to surprise you, huh?" Ace snarled when she didn't explain about why they surprised them. Naru tapped her finger against her cheek, tilting her head as she observed them carefully before nodding her head in confirmation. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't see them nothing but as a bunch of weaklings.

"When I look at the two of you, I don't see a bunch of kids my age that is strong but bunch of kids that looked weak as hell," Ace and Sabo glowered at her words but Naru ignored their glowers and continued. "Makino-neechan always told me that I shouldn't base things on appearance and now I understand why…despite looking scrawny, you two are strong enough to fight a pirate and that means, I won't have to worry about Luffy being killed by a pair of wolves if he had the pair of you. Though Ace you're a meanie for hurting my friend's feeling. "

"I know but it doesn't stop me from worrying, Luffy," Naru admitted softly, slumping against the rocks. "I heard rumors about these forests, about the animals that lurk in these areas and all of them makes me worried about you because of how damn reckless you are! I can't save you from them! Because I don't live here and can't live here due to Makino-san being my caretaker! But knowing that these two can watch you for me, makes me feel better!"

"We tried to kill him, y'know!" Ace said harshly, causing her to turn around to look at him. "How the hell can you trust us after knowing that we nearly killed him, huh? For all you know, we might try to kill him again!"

"Ace!" Sabo said, looking at him in shock.

She smiled at Ace, who blinked his eyes at the sight. "You're the rudest guy I know but you aren't evil," he stared wide-eyed at her, "You look like an idiot if you look at me in wide eyes! You saved him so it makes you a good guy! And you might be cold, act like an idiot but you don't feel bad, you're warm…like the sun, you just need to show that to Luffy and me."

"Weirdo."

"I'm not!" she snapped. "I won't say anything nice about you ever again! Also say anything stupid to Luffy and I'll punch you harder, you might be a part of his family but I'll hurt anyone who hurts his feelings."

"What about his parents huh? You'll hurt his parents."

Naru stiffened at Ace's words, looking hesitantly at Luffy, who still had a huge smile on his face. She didn't know what was worse, not knowing who your parents are or if they're alive but having a grandfather who wouldn't say anything about the parents that his grandson had. She didn't want to know how Luffy could handle this, couldn't understand how he could still be happy and never asking Garp about his parents.

"My Gramps is all I have," Luffy finally said.

"And he's rarely around to take care of ya," Naru muttered angrily. "He doesn't give a damn about your happiness or how the villagers feel when he took you away from us! What god damn right did he give to take care of you!"

Luffy had a huge smile on his face at her words but she knew just from his tense shoulder that he was forcing himself to smile for her sake. If he showed her sadness then there would be no doubt in her mind that she would search for Garp, and hurt him for making her best-friend sad. For always leaving him alone in the village and not caring about how the other villagers felt by taking him away from her.

Naru shook her head and looked at Sabo before turning her attention to Ace and then back to her fellow blond. She took a deep breath and said, "I'm going to say this again because I don't know if you know how much it means to me but, knowing that you guys saved him tells me that you'll take good care of him. That you might be able to handle any loneliness he might have or take care of any problems that he caused. I've always been the one to take care of him but I can't do that anymore!" she clenched her hands into a fist. "It pains me to say this but you guys have to take care of him for me when I'm not there! The pair of you have to do this for me!"

"You want us to take care of him for you, huh?" Ace asked, putting his hands on his hips. "Despite the fact that we hurt him? Tied him up to a tree?"

"Do you want me to hurt ya for reminding me that?" Naru said angrily. She shook her head and smiled at him, causing him to blink his eyes. "But yes, despite all of that, I want you guys to take care of him. You guys seemed trustful and I wouldn't trust anyone with Luffy if I didn't think that they would take real good care of him."

"She doesn't even trust Garp to take care of me!" Luffy added.

Naru curled her lips at him and said, "He left you in a forest for nearly two weeks, without any food or water, only leaving you the clothes on your back! If Makino-san or I hadn't been so worried, who knew what the hell would happen to ya! If I hadn't learnt from Luffy that you saved him then I would have demanded to Garp that he lived with me and Makino and demanded that the pair of you get a beating up."

"What's stopping you?" Ace asked.

Sabo shook his head and said. "Are you mad, Ace? Are you questioning her about why she isn't doing this?"

"Because you beat a pirate for Luffy, no guy would do that!" Naru bunched up her skirt nervously. "I would feel terribly if I had done that and the last thing I want is to feel terrible…and you guys aren't so bad. Grumpy but a pair of nice guys."

"You don't think the pair of us don't deserve to live for what we did?" Ace asked and for some strange reason the way he stared at her brought shivers to her shoulder. Something about his question told her that he wasn't talking about Sabo and him but himself only. Naru gulped and licked her dry lips, mulling over his question before nodding her head.

"If I didn't think you guys deserve to live, would I have offered to take care of the pair of you?" Naru looked meaningfully at the bandages that were wrapped around Ace in his hands. "And why the hell would I want you to die? I might hit you but it doesn't mean I want ya guys dead. It might be your fault Luffy got hurt but it doesn't mean I really want to kill you. If I'm a weirdo then you're a bigger weirdo then me! Besides, it's better to be alive then dead don't you think? Makino-neechan says everyone deserves to live!"

They nodded their head at her words but Ace stared long and hard at her before looking at Luffy. He gave her a smile, looking as if he was proud that she had let go of her anger for those two boys and that thought made her shake her head. She couldn't ever stay angry for long; it just wasn't in her nature. She only stayed angry for long if they had truly meant to kill Luffy but she knew they hadn't meant it, how could they? They were kids just like her and therefore didn't know what it was like to kill.

Still, it didn't change what they did.

"If I'm with you, then it doesn't hurt…" Ace said, turning his head to look at Luffy. "…And if I'm gone…it'd be a problem for you?"

"Yup."

"You want me to live?"

Naru blinked her eyes at this question. She couldn't help but notice that Ace was sweating at these words like he desperately wanted that to be true. She frowned at this thought. If this was the case, why was he desperate for this thought? She glanced at Sabo to see if he knew why, if that was his normal behavior. One look from Sabo and she knew that what Ace said to Luffy must be unusual for Sabo to hear too.

Naru would have called Ace out for his behavior but stopped herself when she noticed that the boy was adjusting his bandages and this caused the blond-haired girl to twitch. She wanted so desperately to hit the boy for doing that-those bandages were her hard work after all and he had the nerve to adjust it. Why she never felt so insulted in her whole life.

"But I hate spoiled brats like you, y'know," Ace said harshly, clutching his stick tightly.

"I'm not a spoiled brat! I'm strong!" Luffy yelled, causing Naru to laugh out loud at this. He glared at her and she coughed, nodding her head at him but that only served for the boy to pout at her. She really wished that she could take him seriously but she couldn't do it to him now, right now she could beat him up with just one hand.

He wasn't strong just yet, even with his abilities.

"Strong?" Ace scoffed. "What's strong about you? You're a boy but you cry like a girl!"

"You ever been punched by spikes!" Luffy yelled, causing Naru to shake her head at him. "I'm seven damn years old! When I get to be ten like you, you can bet I won't ever cry, and I'll be even stronger!"

"I never cried even when I was seven! Dumbass! Don't compare me with you!"

Naru sighed at this and without a second hesitance, brought both of her fists on the two boys' heads. They yelped before glaring at her as they rubbed their heads, looking at her as if she was crazy.

She rolled her eyes, crossed her arms over her chest and stated firmly, "The two of you should stop fighting about this! What's done is done! Luffy cried like a baby but that doesn't mean you have to provoke him about it! Luffy, how many times have I told you not to swear? Honestly if you keep swearing, I'll have to make you pay me for every swear word you say. And another thing, don't try to provoke Ace about how you're not crying when you're ten. I'm ten and I still cry, does that make me weak?"

"No," Luffy said, looking down at his legs as he said this. She smiled at him and ruffled his hair before looking up at the setting sun. With the sun setting, she needed to go home or else Makino would be worried sick about her. She couldn't have the woman worried about her, especially so worried that she might even banned her from going to the 'library' or found out about the fact that she doesn't even go to the library. She groaned at this thought. Why couldn't Makino be someone horrible? At least then, she wouldn't feel so horrible about lying to her.

"I'M GONNA BECOME STRONGER THAN ANYONE!" Luffy declared, snapping her from her thoughts. "BECAUSE I PROMISED SHANKS THAT I'D BECOME A GREAT PIRATE!"

"A pirate?! You?" Ace scoffed.

"Can you please not provoke Luffy? I don't want to hear his screaming when I leave!" Naru said, looking at the older boy pleadingly. "I need to go down the mountain with both of my ears in contact thank you very much!"

"Hey, by the way you three, I've a little problem here," Sabo said, snapping the three of them form their glaring contest. "I've lived in this trash heap all my life…"

Naru looked down at her torn skirt as she felt waves of guilt washed over her. He didn't have to say it, she already knew what he meant and all she could feel was that it was her fault. If she hadn't saved Luffy, if she hadn't punched that man that maybe he would have his home. She knew how painful it is to be torn away from your home.

But she couldn't take him with her because of the fact; she would have to explain to Makino about where she really goes. And if she told Makino the truth then the young woman would probably not let her go back to see Luffy. This mountain was dangerous as Makino said and the young woman didn't want to lose her.

Naru didn't blame her; she didn't want to lose Makino or Luffy and maybe these two boys either. She chuckled. Who knew that she would be saying this now, huh? Things were changing; she knew it and she could also feel it.

The question was, were these changes going to be good?

Only Kami had the answer for that but for Luffy sake, for her sake, she hoped that it would be for the best and not for the worst. She couldn't imagine losing these three boys now. In a matter of one day, they wiggled into her heart and became someone precious to her. Someone she would be willing to protect, people whom she had came to treasure.

The question was how was she going to leave them when the time came? Could she do that to herself? Force herself to go for a village that didn't seem beautiful, leaving behind people that actually gave a damned for her. She actually had people that actually loved her, and didn't scorn her like those people in her memories. How could she leave them now? She took in a shaky breath; smiling at Luffy, Sabo and Ace and told them that she should better get back home.

"See you, tomorrow, Naru!" Luffy said, smiling and waving at her as she walked away.

"Don't let the animals bite ya!"

"Like I would let them!" Naru said, glaring at the dark-haired boy.

"Keep safe!"

"I'll, Sabo!"

She really didn't know how she could even think about leaving those three boys behind when she went back home to her real village. But she had to do. She had to know who she really was, who her parents were and why those people hated her. But most especially, know how she came to this small village that was the complete opposite of her old village.

**A/N:** I would love to hear your opinion on this chapter and story in general. I would also hear about your opinion so far on Naru.


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